Pleas Jones

Pleas E. Jones (December 23, 1912 – September 20, 1986) was an American lawyer and jurist from Kentucky. A native of Whitley County, Kentucky, Jones was a schoolteacher before he served in the U.S. Army during World War II. After returning to the United States, Jones earned his law degree at the University of Kentucky College of Law. Jones was a county judge and a Commonwealth's attorney before being elected a circuit judge. In 1973, Jones was appointed an associate justice of the Kentucky Court of Appeals—then the state's highest court. He served on that court (subsequently renamed the Kentucky Supreme Court) until his retirement in 1979. He died seven years later. Early life and family Pleas Jones was born on a farm in Whitley County, Kentucky, on December 23, 1912. He was the son of Nathaniel "Thanny" and Rachel Lundy Jones. In the 1920s, the family moved to Harlan County, where Jones earned money by delivering The Cincinnati Post in the town of Bardo. The family returned to Whitley County, and after graduating from Williamsburg High School, Jones matriculated to Cumberland College (then a junior college, now University of the Cumberlands). He left Cumberland in 1934 and earned education degrees at Union College and Eastern State Teachers College (now Eastern Kentucky University). Jones and his wife, Marie, had two sons – Pleas David and Gorman.